Sonoma Valley mourns Rolf Olness, longtime family doctor killed in crash

People across Sonoma Valley grieved Wednesday as word spread of the death of longtime family doctor Rolf Olness, who treated thousands of local residents over four decades and was known for a deep kindness and dedication to his practice.

Olness, 72, died after crashing his SUV Monday night off his driveway near rural Lovall Valley Road in the hills east of Sonoma. The Toyota 4Runner dropped about 20 feet down a ravine. Olness was found inside the vehicle Tuesday about noon. The time of the crash is under investigation, but his daughter Kara Reyes, 41, missed a phone call from him about 8:30 p.m., she said.

“He sat down every single night all through high school to do my homework with me,” she said from her mother’s home in Sonoma. “He would joke that he probably deserved my diploma more than I did.”

He also had a special knack for taking in Reyes’ friends - the types of friends, Reyes said, most parents don’t want their kids to associate with.

“I had a lot of friends who had a lot of troubled paths or trauma in their childhood, and I had friends who were living life on the edge. But he would welcome them,” she said.

Reyes graduated from Sonoma Valley High School, went on to college at Sonoma State, and now works as a program manager for a social service agency in Napa called Cope Family Center.

The bond between Olness and his only daughter was extremely strong. He would call her every day, and from the time she was 8 until she was 18, he took her to more than 100 rock concerts, she said.

“That was his thing with me, like, ‘OK, I can help you with homework, but I don’t know what else to do with a daughter who’s not into sports.’ So we connected with music. He had a real wild side, which a lot of people knew. They nicknamed him ‘Doctor Rock.’”

Dr. Dennis Verducci, a longtime close friend, said many who knew Olness were in shock over his death. For about 42 years Olness treated the full range of ailments for Sonoma Valley patients - who he referred to as “dear friends” - ranging from newborns to the elderly, Verducci said.

A few years ago the doctor scaled back his practice to about 600 patients, many of them elderly. The “concierge” practice meant he made house calls and responded day or night, Verducci said.

He found himself caring for several generations of patients, said Kelly Mather, CEO of Sonoma Valley Hospital. For at least 20 years, Olness also was associated with the hospital, most recently as director of the skilled nursing facility.

“He was really loved by his patients. He was a very kind, caring man,” Mather said, recounting a story about Olness laundering the clothes of long-term patients at his home.

He was also an avid sports fan - his teams were the Giants and the 49ers, and he loved golf. He also was a member of a Duck Club near Gridley, said Lee Jay Olness, his ex-wife.

For 16 years Olness and Verducci had Giants season tickets at AT&T Park not far from the first base line, where Olness became a section favorite with his friendly, joking personality.

“Everyone in our section knew him. He was known as ‘Doc,’” Verducci said.

Jennifer Gray, a longtime Sonoma Valley resident and district aide to county Supervisor Susan Gorin, said Olness was her doctor at a time when she had no insurance and struggled to afford the medication she needed. He charged $15 a visit.

“I never forgot it and thanked him many times over the years,” Gray wrote on widely circulated Facebook post. “I am not alone.”

Olness was headed home Monday night when he crashed. He was driving along the steep, narrow driveway toward his home when he ran off the lane, said CHP Officer Lisa Paulson, who is investigating. It rained heavily Monday night, but it remains unclear if the weather was a factor.

There was no clear sign of what caused his death, including no obvious injury, according to the CHP. An autopsy was scheduled to determine if he suffered internal injuries or had suffered a medical emergency, Paulson said. Services are pending.

He is survived by his daughter and two grandsons, whose soccer and Pop Warner football games he attended regularly.

He was born and raised in Williston, North Dakota, a town of 14,716, according to the last census, but he made it out. First he headed south to medical school at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, then to the Pacific for a residency at Queens Hospital in Honolulu, where he met his future wife, Lee Jay, who lived there, working as a flight attendant.

Toward the end of the Vietnam War, he was drafted and spent two years stationed at the Yokosuka Naval hospital in Japan. He and Lee Jay stayed together through his deployment, then headed to her hometown of Sonoma to have their first and only child, Kara.

“Everybody really, really liked him and relied on him,” Lee Jay said. “He was really loved, and he wouldn’t believe the amount of messages and flowers we’re getting. It’s very heartwarming.”

You can reach Staff Writers Randi Rossmann at 707-521-5412 or randi.rossmann@pressdemocrat.com and Christi Warren at 707-521-5205 or christi.warren@pressdemocrat.com.